Paul Klee: Making Visible (Oct 16 – Mar 9, 2014) at Tate Modern is a major retrospective of the early 20-centry master of European modernism, Paul Klee, and one of the London’s must-see exhibitions this fall&winter. Paintings, drawings and watercolours from collections around the world are displayed alongside each other as Klee originally intended, often for the first time since Klee exhibited them himself.

This 17-room exhibition traces Klee’s career chronologically, beginning in Munich during the World War I, when he joined Der Blaue Reiter founded by Franz Marc and Wassily Kandinsky and established of his unique style of abstract patchworks of colour. It follows the decade of teaching and working at the Bauhaus, and his prolific final years in the 1930s in Bern, after he was dismissed from his teaching position by the Nazis and took refuge in Switzerland, as his works were labelled ‘degenerate art’ in Germany.

Most of his works are small in size, but on the opposite to its size, those are filled with rich colors and lots of imagination. Intriguing.

Schwitters in Britain(January 30 – May 12) at Tate Britain is the major exhibition to examine the late work of German artist Kurt Schwitters, one of the major artists of European Modernism, who worked in several genres and media including Dada, Constructivism, Surrealism, poetry, sound, painting, sculpture, graphic design, typography and installation art. Focusing on his British period from his arrival in Britain as a refugee in 1940 until his death in 1948, the exhibition showcases over 150 collages, often incorporated fragments from packaging and newspapers, as well as sculptures and paintings. Schwitters invented the concept of Merz, ‘the combination, for artistic purposes of all conceivable materials’, and pioneered use of found objects and everyday materials in abstract collage, installation, poetry and performance. His work has influenced later British artists such as Richard Hamilton, Eduardo Paolozzi and Damien Hirst.

Schwitters was forced to flee Germany in 1937, when his work was condemned as ‘degenerate’ by Nazi government and first settled in Norway for three years. He escaped to Britain in 1940 after the Nazi occupation of Norway but had been detained as an enemy alien until his release in 1941. Then he became involved with the London art scene, engaging with British artists and critics such as Ben Nicholson and Herbert Read. In 1945 Schwitters relocated to the Lake District, and began to incorporate natural objects into his work. The move also culminated in the creation of his sculpture and installation, the Merz Barn, a continuation of his Hanover architectural construction Merzbau. The exhibition ends with commissions by artists Adam Chodzko and Laure Prouvost made in collaboration with Grizedale Arts to explore the Schwitters’ legacy.

Schwitters work using muted colours is rather understated and somehow gloomy, probably reflected the atmosphere of the war time and his life experience as a refugee. Completely oposite to the ambience of the Lichtenstein exhibition. He must be a great artist and a pioneer of modern art, and probably many people love the exhibition, but I don’t feel anything by looking at his famous collages, though I like his conventional portraits and landscape paintings (such as in FT and Guardian). His work is just not my cup of tea…

We saw a Tate Britain‘s exhibition, Migrations: Journeys into British Art (January 31 – August 12). Developments in transport, artistic institutions, politics and economics have attracted artists to come to Britain, and the exhibition exploring how British art has been shaped by migrant artists from abroad from 1500 to the present day.

In the 16th century, Flemish and Dutch landscape and still-life painters including Anthony van Dyck, came to Britain through moments of political and religious unrest and introduced a new style of portraiture. 17th century European migrants brought new genre, such as marine and landscape painting, to UK. During the 18th century, artists from different countries who studied in Italy and developed a neoclassical style, settled in London and contributed in founding of the Royal Academy of Arts in 1768. Many 19th-century British and American artists, such as Whistler, studied in Paris and established themselves in London for patronage, as well as French artists who also escaped the Franco-Prussian war and its political aftermath. In the early 20th century, Jewish artists and Jewish art were explored in Britain. In the 1930-40s, European artists such asMondrian, Naum Gabo and Laszlo Maholy-Nagy, escaped from Nazi Germany and brought modernist principles. In the 50-60s, artists from the Commonwealth countries came to study and engaged with modernism. They took a conceptual approach and became a part of a counterculture. In the 80s, British artists of immigrant backgrounds, such as the Black Audio Film Collective, explored race and national identity. Present time contemporary artists, including Zineb Sedira and Steve McQueen, use moving image for both documenting and questioning reality,

Migrations is an interesting exhibition, showing us the development of British art over 500 years, interacting with people from different cultures from time to time, as well as a bit of British and world history. But it lacks of punch in some way, and didn’t give me something that remains in my heart.

Cologne Christmas Market is taking place for the third time between the Southbank Centre/Royal Festival Hall and London Eye along the River Thames. Bringing a traditional German Christmas Market to London, around 60 traditionally decorated wooden chalets sell German specialty such as “Bratwurst”, a glass of “Glühwein” (German Mulled Wine), gingerbread hearts, roasted almonds and candies, as well as handcrafted gifts, toys, jewelry, hand tatted laces, candles, ceramics and glass ornaments for Christmas tree. There are also the carousel and Santa’s Secret Village that houses 30-minute children’s shows, to entertain small visitors.

These photos are of last year’s, but it is more or less the same this year. I went to Christmas markets in Vienna few years ago, and it was much more fun than the Southbank’s, which is rather sad and depressing. Christmas markets in Vienna was more glittering and lively that gave me true festive feelings. Visitors there looked far more happier than the ones in Southbank who looked bored or little interested. The organizer must work harder, instead of just making a bad copy of a festivity from foreign culture.

The story takes place in a small Protestant village in northern Germany in 1913-14, just before the World War I breaks out. Among the people who live there are a baron who own large estate, a strict pastor with many children, a widowed doctor, a midwife, and their children, and a unmarried schoolteacher who tells this story many years later. Since the first incident happened, the doctor falls down from his horse and is severely wounded by wire placed at the entrance of his house, a string of disturbing and distressing accidents occur and gradually take on the character of a ritual of punishment and torture. No one knows who is the perpetrator, and villagers in this highly moralistic and stiff community worry and feel uncertain. Then the World War I started and the mysteries remain unsolved and forgotten in the excitement of the war.

The title “white ribbon” comes from the episode that the pastor tie a white ribbon to the arm of his two children as a constant reminder of their duties to purity. But these kids, who should be ‘pure’, are the possible offenders of this horrific incidents and act very suspicious. And these children are the ones who grow up in the rise of Nazism and Fascism; this infers future brutality and what former children are capable of during the time of Nazis.

Suppressed cruelty – there are no scenes of actual violence. But the black & white footage enhances unseen chilling horror. As in his other his films, Haneke never reveals who did these crimes, so the viewers have to guess ourselves (and it is a bit frustrating). It is a long movie, about 2 hours and half, but it didn’t bore me at all – one of the best work of Haneke for me and it deserves to Palme d’Or.

The Timesのレストラン批評家が、ヴァピアーノのことを悪く書いていたが、書かれている程ひどくないと思う。それにロンドンには１軒しかないものの、チェーン・レストランを批評するのって、ロイヤル・ホストなんかを批評するようで、何だか違う気がする。かのThe Timesの批評家がチェーン店のことをこれ見よがしに書くなんて、御託を並べるのはちゃんとしたレストランだけにすれば？と思うのだが。

Vapiano is the German Pasta/Pizza restaurant chain that has expanded their business in the United States, Europe and the Middle East. Vapiano‘s concept is in-between fast food and casual restaurant. Each diner is provided a chip card that records an order at the food and drink counter, and you pay at the register when you leave the restaurant. It is great that I don’t have to wait for often slow service at the table, for a inpatient person like me. Maybe a German style practical system. All dough and pasta are manufactured on-site in a glass room so that customers can watch it, and all of the herbs and salad greens are grown in an enclosed space in the dining area. It is also fun to watch your made-to-order food being cooked in front of you at the counter, when you are waiting. We always order pastas and the pasta is not bad at all, or even better than bad Italian restaurants in the city. The interior of this spacious restaurant with two floors is typical chain restaurant modern with little sophistication (especially red sofas upstairs), but it is comfortable enough to stay for a while and you never get disappointed by finding no table available.

A food critique of the Times talked bad about Vapiano, but though there is only one restaurant in London, Vapiano is a chain restaurant and it is strange that “the Times’ food critique” criticizes about chain restaurant – it is like reviewing TGI Friday in a glossy newspaper magazine. Why doesn’t he mind only about ‘proper’ restaurants??